


Oh, Worm?

by hereonourstreet



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Drinking, Frarority, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 04:03:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21421873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereonourstreet/pseuds/hereonourstreet
Summary: Nine beers in, Galo sees Lio light the fireplace - with his finger.He says he’s cold and crosses the crowded room to the little hearth in the corner. He pokes around for a few seconds and asks if the chimney works. Galo thinks so, they’ve lit fires before at least, and then Lio actually turns to look over his shoulder, as if to make sure Galo is watching. He smiles at him.And then he points at the fireplace. And suddenly, fire exists.[AKA Lio inadvertently gaslights Galo. This was a commission for my friend! The pacing is pretty quick because I was fitting a surprising amount into 2k words.]
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 11
Kudos: 162





	Oh, Worm?

Two beers in, Galo doesn’t really feel much. He doesn’t drink that often but he’s a big guy so it takes a lot to get him drunk. He hands a third bottle to Aina, who does her little table ledge trick to open it and hands it back. Remi hands him a bottle opener, just to be a dick.

The party is larger than usual and the frarority house is littered with strangers. And there are two strangers in particular that Galo has had his eye on. He’s asked around and no one in Margherita Pizza Pi seems to know who they are. It’s not that they’re doing anything wrong, it’s just that they’re sort of the center of attention. Galo isn’t jealous. He’s just confused. Who are they and why are they here? Who invited them? And is that third little guy with them? He’s just sitting off to the side, legs spread and head resting on his hand, smiling quietly to himself as these two jackasses continue to steal the attention.

Four beers in, Galo starts to feel a  _ little  _ something. He has the confidence to at least go up to them and ask who they are. And that’s when they finally reveal it: their names are Gueira and Meis and they’re from Theta Mad Burnish. Well, they  _ were  _ from Theta Mad Burnish. They’re alumni and apparently they have no lives because they’re crashing a bunch of college kids’ party. But Theta Mad Burnish  _ is  _ sort of Margherita Pizza Pi’s rival so it makes enough sense. What Galo doesn’t understand is that they’re just having a good time. They’re not doing anything wrong. Why aren’t they stealing their alcohol or hitting on all the girls?

“Is that what you want them to do?”

The little guy in the corner speaks up but he doesn’t move a muscle. Galo turns to him and frowns.

“No, I just don’t understand their… you know. Whatever the word is. Why are they here?”

“Motive?”

“Yeah!” Galo shouts. Then he points at the guy. “And who are  _ you?” _

“I’m Lio Fotia,” he says and Galo recognizes the name immediately. A Theta Mad Burnish legend. He really screwed with Margherita Pizza Pi back in the day. And back in the day was about two years ago, but Galo wasn’t part of the frarority then.

“So you decided to come back to your old college, too?”

“This is my current college,” he says. “I’m a grad student now.”

“Don’t people usually go to a different college for grad school?”

Lio Fotia doesn’t answer. He just stares at Galo like he’s a fucking idiot and Galo doesn’t know what he said this time, but he feels like one, for sure.

Eight beers in, Gueira and Meis end up somewhere, Galo doesn’t know where, but no one really seems to mind they’re there. Galo is the only one with any integrity and pride, apparently. But even he sort of disregards them after a while - but only because he’s focused on the leader.

“So you really decided to just come crash an undergrad party?” Galo asks, snaking his arm up a wall above Lio. He’s so small that Galo figured he can intimidate him physically, but it doesn’t seem to be working. He actually takes a step closer.

“What year are you?”

“Junior.”

“I’m a first year grad student,” he says. “And I graduated early. So I’m only one year older than you. I think we can be friends.”

Galo blinks. He looks one year  _ younger  _ than him, but he supposes that’s only because he’s short. 

“You want to be friends?”

“Sure,” Lio says.

And then he does it.

Nine beers in, Galo sees Lio light the fireplace - with his finger.

He says he’s cold and crosses the crowded room to the little hearth in the corner. He pokes around for a few seconds and asks if the chimney works. Galo thinks so, they’ve lit fires before at least, and then Lio actually turns to look over his shoulder, as if to make sure Galo is watching. He smiles at him.

And then he points at the fireplace. And suddenly, fire exists.

“What the fuck?!” Galo cries. He stomps over, pulling Lio away roughly and checking his hands. No lighter. No fluid. No matches. “How the hell did you do that?!”

“Do what?”

“Where did that fire come from?!”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Galo turns around. The only person nearby is Varys so he shouts his name. Varys likes parties but also tends to keep to himself so he probably wasn’t paying attention.

“What?”

“Did you see this guy just light the fire?”

“What?”

“Were you watching just now when he put the fire in the fireplace?”

“No.”

“Damnit, Varys.”

“What did I do?”

“You have to keep your eyes peeled at all times!” Galo says. “That’s what Burning Rescue does!”

“Is anyone  _ on  _ fire?” Varys asks and Galo doesn’t dignify it with a response, he just turns back to Lio and glares.

“What do you have up your… fancy little sleeves?”

Lio shrugs.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says. “Maybe you should go to bed.”

“What?”

“I’m tired,” Lio yawns. “Let’s go to bed.”

“You want to… sleep here?”

“You want me to leave?”

“Are you drunk?”

“If I say yes, will you let me stay here?”

“I mean… yeah.”

“Then I’m wasted.”

“No you’re not,” Galo says. “I’m drunk but I’m not  _ that  _ drunk.”

“You’re drunk enough to think a person started a fire with his bare hands,” Lio says. “Maybe we should both go to bed.”

Galo has no clue how he ends up on the floor next to his own bed staring at the ceiling, but the room  _ is _ kind of spinning. He thinks he had a few more beers which means he polished off two six-packs on his own in a matter of a few hours. He’s still not wasted, but he’s drunk enough that passing out sounds amazing right now.

He wakes up the next morning and Lio is in his bed.

Lio leaves once he wakes up but not before he gives Galo his number, though Galo can’t imagine why. He asks one last time how he did that with the fire but Lio just shakes his head and says, “You really convince yourself of things, don’t you?”

“I know what I saw.”

“You were drunk,” Lio says. “I’ll text you sometime.”

Galo rushes back into the house and finds most of his friends sitting around the dining table nursing hangovers. He doesn’t feel great himself, but what happened the night before takes precedence.

“Hey!” he shouts. Everyone groans at the noise. “Does anyone else here know that guy?!”

“Which guy?” Lucia asks. “Lio Fotia?”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah, most of us know him,” she says. “He used to really screw with us. But he was fun.”

“Fun? He shot fire out of his hand!”

“Yeah,” Aina says sleepily. “He has pretty tough skin.”

“What?”

“He plays with fire a lot,” Remi tells him. “A little arsonist.”

“No,” Galo shakes his head. “He… he  _ shot fire  _ out of his hand.”

“No he didn’t,” Aina tells him. “He just always has a lighter on him.”

“No!” Galo shouts. “I saw it!”

“Didn’t you pass out on the floor last night?” Varys interrupts. Galo glares at him.

“I was not  _ that  _ drunk.”

“You were pretty drunk,” Aina says. “Actually, after you fell asleep, Lio was playing with the candle by your bed for a while. He wanted to stay to make sure you didn’t choke on your vomit in your sleep.”

“Yeah, thanks for that,” Galo says. “I woke up with him in my bed.”

No one really says anything after that, and Galo folds his arms over his chest.

“Do you want me to talk to him for you, Galo?” Aina asks. Her voice is sing-songy and Galo doesn’t know why.

“Yeah!” he shouts. “I do! Find out what happened!”

“Alright,” she says as if it’s some big joke. “I don’t think I need to, but I will.”

Galo has no idea what’s going on, but he’s going to get to the bottom of it.

On Monday, he finds Lio outside his classroom. He hides behind the fake tree in the hallway and watches as Lio waits for his class to start. He’s reading a book but Galo can’t make out what. When the door opens and the students from the previous class file out, Lio doesn’t move. He continues reading his book well after his own class has started to go in and doesn’t get up until he’s good and ready. He has a small backpack which fits his frame well and Galo wonders what it’s like to be that small. He bet he could fit his fingers around Lio’s waist no problem. In fact, he gets so caught up in daydreaming about it that he totally misses when Lio heads inside. He didn’t see anything important so he decides to try again the next day.

On Tuesday, Lio is at work at the theater on campus. He works in the box office and Galo finds a vending machine off to the right of where Lio sits. He makes his way behind it as Lio sits boredly at the desk, answering the phone now and then but otherwise making no moves to do much of anything, much less start a fire with his own body. In fact, Galo sort of starts to fall asleep himself. He half-dreams about Lio. He wonders what it’s like to actually know Lio, the way those other two - Gueira and Meis? - seemed to. He’s such a legend that Galo is surprised he gave him his number. He wants to be friends with a college junior that badly? He seemed way too cool for someone like Galo. When he wakes up, Lio is gone.

But it keeps him up at night. Why did Lio give him his number? And… when is he going to text? Didn’t he say he was going to? 

So where is he?

Galo stares at the ceiling again as he thinks these things over - only this time, things are spinning internally. The room is stone still but Galo’s brain races a million miles a second.

On Wednesday, he’s exhausted, but he finds Lio studying in the library. He hides behind a particularly large bookcase and moves some encyclopedias to the side so he can peek through. Lio is all alone in a cold little corner and Galo is  _ sure  _ he’ll see something this time.

Only he doesn’t. Lio is just a normal guy. Galo has to remind himself why he’s even watching him. He kind of forgot that he  _ made fire with his bare hands.  _ He got a little caught up in noticing all his little  _ things  _ instead _ .  _ The way his mouth moves when he reads. The way he lets his hair tendrils fall in front of his face. The way he snaps his gloves on before he goes outside into the snow. His legs are always spread as wide as possible and he often rests his head on his hand, looking just like he did the night Galo met him - five days ago.

On Thursday, it all catches up to Galo and he falls sick.

“Bring me your notes!” he calls to Aina before she leaves his bedroom. She looks back at him with a frown.

“You haven’t given me back my notes from the last class you missed,” she says. “I’ll let you see my notes when you give me those back.”

“Fine,” Galo says as he downs some cold medicine and settles into his bed. He really does not feel well. “They’re in my backpack. I’ll give them to you tonight.”

Then he promptly falls back to sleep only this time he’s so out of it that it’s dreamless. No Lio Fotia to haunt him - not that it’s really haunting him. It’s not haunting if he doesn’t mind it, right? It’s more like… plaguing him. But in a good way. A good plague. He’s sick and Lio Fotia is the virus that made him that way… though indirectly. It’s not Lio’s fault Galo has been too distracted by him to eat or sleep.

So when he wakes up and sees Lio’s face, he assumes he’s still asleep.

“You awake?”

“Lio?”

No, he’s actually there. Lio Fotia is sitting in a chair across from his bed with a container in his hands.

“I brought you soup.”

“Did Aina tell you I was sick?”

“No,” he says, standing and coming towards him. “I just didn’t see you stalking me today so I figured something was wrong.”

Galo glares.

“I know what I saw,” he says. “You started that fire with your fingers.”

Lio puts the soup on his bedside table and smiles down at him.

“It’s okay,” he says. “You can just say that you have a crush on me.”

“What?!” Galo shouts. “No I don’t!”

“Really?” Lio asks. “Because I have a crush on you.”

“Oh, worm?” Galo goes meek. He’s suddenly very shy.

“Yeah. Wanna go on a date with me when you’re better?”

“Yes, please,” Galo says quietly. He didn’t realize that’s what he wanted until just now. Maybe that’s why Lio has been plaguing him. Lio smiles and takes a seat next to him. Galo scoots over and lets him on the bed. “I’m freezing,” he tells him. 

“I can keep you warm,” Lio says. 

“What if you get sick?”

“It’s fine,” he shrugs. He rolls Galo over and wraps an arm around him, effectively making Galo the little spoon. He’s never been the little spoon before. “You’re on cold meds?”

“Yeah,” Galo sniffles. “I’m going to fall back to sleep in a few seconds.”

Lio doesn’t respond. He just snuggles in harder and starts to rub Galo’s arm softly. It’s nice. He wasn’t expecting this. Any of this. He wonders what Aina must have said to him.

He swears the last thing he sees before he closes his eyes and falls asleep is a little flame, traveling quickly from Lio’s finger to the candle on his bedside table.

**Author's Note:**

> don't worry, Lio eventually lets Galo in on the secret. maybe one day I'll write an expanded version of this? 
> 
> anyway as always you can find me on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/hereonourstreet) where there are links if you want to support my writing more


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